argentina

more...

Home
A
abercrombie
abercrombie 4
abercrombie skirt
aboriginal
abstract paintings
acceleracers
accordion
acer laptop
acoustic electric
action figure
acura tsx
adriana lima
advantage
advertising
aeropostale
aerosmith
affiliates
afghanistan
agp video
air force
air jordan
air max
air rifle
airtronics
akademiks
alex rodriguez
alexandrite
alice in
alienware
all in
alligator
alltel cell
alpinestar
altimeter
amazon.com
ambulance
american eagle
american flyer
american girl
americana
amplifier
amplifiers
animation
ann taylor
announcements
anthropologie
antik jeans
antique diamond
antique jewelry
antique oil
antique picture
antique sampler
antique violin
apartment
apocalypse
apple ipod
apple laptop
appliance
aqua master
aquamarine
arcade games
architectural
aretha franklin
argentina
armani shirt
arrowheads
art deco
art nouveau
as is
astronaut
at t
atari games
auctions for
audi cabriolet
aurora model
aurora slot
australia
australian gold
autococker
autograph
autographed
autographed baseball
autographs
automatic
automobile
autoradio
avon cape
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z

Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic (Spanish: República Argentina, IPA: , Nación Argentina (Argentine Nation) for many legal purposes), is a South American country, second in size in the continent to Brazil and eighth in the world. Argentina occupies a continental surface area of 2,766,890 km² (1,078,000 sq mi) between the Andes mountain range in the west and the southern Atlantic Ocean in the east and south.

It is bordered by Paraguay and Bolivia in the north, Brazil and Uruguay in the northeast, and Chile in the west and south. The country claims the British controlled territories of the Falkland Islands (Spanish: Islas Malvinas) and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. Under the name of Argentine Antarctica, it claims 969,464 km² (374,312 sq mi) of Antarctica, overlapping other claims made by Chile and the United Kingdom.

Etymology

\"Argentina\" derives from the Latin argentum (silver). When the first Spanish conquistadors discovered the Río de la Plata, they named the estuary Mar Dulce ('Sweet Sea', as in a fresh water sea). Indigenous people gave gifts of silver to the survivors of the shipwrecked expedition, who were led by Juan Díaz de Solís. The legend of Sierra del Plata – a mountain rich in silver – reached Spain around 1524, and the name was first seen in print on a Venice map from 1536. The source of the silver was the area where the city of Potosí was to be founded in 1546. An expedition that followed the trail of the silver up the Paraná and Pilcomayo rivers finally reached the source only to find it already claimed by explorers who reached it from Lima, the capital of the Viceroyalty of Peru.

The name Argentina was first used extensively in the 1612 book Historia del descubrimiento, población, y conquista del Río de la Plata (History of the discovery, population, and conquest of the Río de la Plata) by Ruy Díaz de Guzmán, naming the territory Tierra Argentina (Land of Silver). Traditionally, the British English name for the country is \"The Argentine\", but this is no longer in common use.

History

The first signs of human presence in Argentina are located in the Patagonia (Piedra Museo, Santa Cruz), and date from 11,000 BC. Around 1 AD, several maize-based civilizations developed in the Andean region (Santa María, Huarpes, Diaguitas, Sanavirones, among others). In 1480, the Inca Empire under the rule of emperor Pachacutec launched an offensive and conquered present-day northwestern Argentina, integrating it into a region called Collasuyu. In the northeastern area, the Guaraní developed a culture based on yuca and sweet potato. The central and southern areas (Pampas and Patagonia) were dominated by nomadic cultures, unified in the seventeenth century by the Mapuches.

Read more at Wikipedia.org